One More Gone
One More ''G''on''e'' Episode Four, Season Four, of Cold. Enjoy <3 One More Gone Everything is getting worse and worse. I can’t have a moment of peace in this world. “You’re telling me you have absolutely no idea where Tigerstripe is.” I confirmed with Brownhare, who simply nodded. Groaning, I sighed, “Go get some ThunderClan patrol to pull together a search party to look for Tigerstripe.” I didn’t know why I felt so panicked about his disappearance.'' He’s part of my patrol now; I have to be responsible for everyone’s safety''. Maybe I was trying to fool myself, my patrol was safe, and yet I’m freaking out over Tigerstripe’s disappearance. Just focus on your next meeting. Frosty and Kitkat were waiting for my response. “You want the Clans to work with the rogues, to save our missing friends.” I restated. Kitkat nodded, though she was looking bored, “Are you deaf, or just stupid?” she sighed, “We said that about five minutes ago.” Dawnfur and Snowbreeze were seated next to me while Tessa was guarding the area. It was a day after the first meeting with the rogue leaders, and I was starting to doubt my sanity. “And why should we trust you?” Dawnfur snapped, “Last time I checked, you were trying to wipe out all the Clans.” Frosty rolled her eyes and growled, “Yes, we’re enemies of the Clans, but that doesn’t mean we can’t ask for former enemies to help us in times of need. We can be valuable in your searches too.” “Do we even know who has taken the cats?” Snowbreeze put in before Dawnfur could make another snide remark. “Well, no.” Kitkat muttered. Dawnfur let out a gusty sigh and stood up, “I’m going to join Brownhare in his search for Tigerstripe.” She turned and strode out, going in the complete opposite way of ThunderClan. Snowbreeze sighed and curled her tail, “I have to agree with Dawnfur, I don’t see how we can trust you two.” Kitkat seemed a bit sour today, “Look, either you’re absolutely useless and incompetent, or you’re just trying to be in our way. We don’t plan on raiding your Clans while this mission is going on; we’re trying to save our on cats too.” I found it hard to believe myself, but I nodded, “We’ll think about it. Meet us here the day after half-moon for our decision.” Turning to pad outside, Frosty called out, “You better think hard about it, we only ask once, and if you say no, you’re on your own.” Once a rogue, always a rogue. Frosty would never change. Tessa glanced out guiltily as I stalked past with Snowbreeze following. She stood up and hurried after us, but she had a thoughtful, yet worried look on her face. I stopped and turned to look at her. “What’s wrong, Tessa?” She paused, looking startled when I singled her out, “Nothing,” she replied quickly, “I’ve been thinking about the problem, that’s all.” My gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before I nodded tersely and padded back towards the Clans. ~ “You’re telling me he disappeared off the land and now he’s gone.” I glared at Brownhare, who was staring evenly back at me. “I told you that for the fifth time, Shade,” he said patiently, “Tigerstripe isn’t on Clan territory, which means he was kidnapped like Storm and the other Clan cats that have gone missing.” I flinched at the name Storm. Memories of my recent quarrel with her still haunted me. I had always dreamed about apologizing to her, then she would disappear, yelling at me for not understanding her pain. “I’m such an idiot.” I growled, “I can’t even locate my cats now.” Dawnfur sighed, “Can’t we go and kick some tails? I want to raid something, maybe like their camp or something.” “No, we’re all going to die if we go charging into their camp.” I rolled my eyes, “I know you’re more logical than that.” “You don’t know me.” Tessa was still sitting on the side, thinking about something. “See?” I pointed out, “Even she’s being more logical than you are.” “So I’m not as logical as you think!” Dawnfur mewed triumphantly. At the same time, Tessa’s head snapped around to glare at me, “What do you mean even Tessa? I can be logical.” While Dawnfur coughed about her being on the wrong side in their last war, I remarked, “Dawnfur, how is proving me wrong a good thing for your cause?” “Well, on one paw, you’re wrong, on the other, it means I’m right, and you’re wrong.” Dawnfur said snidely. “That’s the same thing.” Snowbreeze mewed quietly. Tessa gave Dawnfur a dark look, almost as if she wanted to murder the ShadowClan she-cat right now. Brownhare stared down at us disapprovingly, and Snowbreeze just sighed at the tension in the air. While Dawnfur started arguing with Snowbreeze about being right and wrong and about the “same thing”, I stood up, “Someone go to all four Clans and call a small meeting. I want the leaders to gather five of their best warriors or senior warriors to hear what I have to say.” “Who cares what you have to say.” Dawnfur groaned. I rolled my eyes at her and nudged her up, “Since you’re in such a foul mood, you go tell the leaders.” “I think I’ll go visit Flameheart.” She shot back. Snowbreeze sighed loudly and stood up, “I’ll go then.” She whisked past Dawnfur, who stared at her in shock. “I’m guessing you’ve never seen her in such a sour mood?” I remarked as Dawnfur gaped at Snowbreeze. “I bet you’ve never seen her so rude.” Dawnfur retorted, “Like you know everything about us anyways.” “Obviously I don’t, but my first impression of you all proved me right. Plus, I’ve been watching you for awhile, I do know most of your characteristics.” I gave Dawnfur a haughty look. “Stalker,” the ShadowClan cat muttered, “You freaking rogue stalker.” She pivoted on her hindleg and stalked out, leaving us all staring after her. Tessa stood too, and muttered something about hunting and padded away. Brownhare didn’t move, but he had a disapproving look on his face. Sighing, I growled, “I’m going to see if I can get any leads on where Tigerstripe went before the meeting.” Brownhare nodded farewell and I left the clearing, abandoning all hope of ever leading the group that had befriended Storm. Where are you, sister? We need you and you’re not here... As I headed towards ThunderClan territory, I heard a scream. Snowbreeze. Terror rushed through me and I made a dash for WindClan’s territory. Snowbreeze was pinned down by a rogue, and the rogue looked as though he was going to kill her instead. The rogues... They’re the ones kidnapping our cats. But I wouldn’t make it in time to save Snowbreeze, and my chest tightened at the thought of losing another cat to the rogues. Suddenly a flash of gray cut off my vision and I saw another cat knocking the rogue over. Snowbreeze scrambled upright, her eyes widening as she stared at her savior. Storm, is that you? But finally the rogue through off the gray cat and hared away. When Snowbreeze went over to thank the cat, I realized he was a tom. Some other cat then... I hurried over, and nudged Snowbreeze. “Are you alright?” She nodded silently and thanked the tom once more. “No problem,” he dipped his head, “I’m Graystorm.” “What Clan are you from?” “Um... I traveled from far away.” He muttered. Then he added, “I used to be a rogue, but I liked the sound of having a Clan name, so I called myself Graystorm.” “It’s a nice name,” Snowbreeze supplied. The two were staring at each other weirdly, and I merely nodded. “Graystorm, do you know anything about the rogues, like the one that was attacking Snowbreeze earlier?” I asked him. “Yes, I’ve been trying to track them down for awhile.” He sighed, “No luck though, this was the first I’ve seen of them so close to the Clans.” “Hm, so this is the closest they’ve gotten to being seen on Clan territory...” I muttered, “Snowbreeze, you continue with your assignment, and I’ll go check on Minnowfur’s kits.” If this rogue was the first to be spotted, I’m never going to find any clues on ThunderClan territory. Better to wait for a decision before I get abducted too. Graystorm turned away to leave, and Snowbreeze’s eyes stared after him for a moment longer. Is she always this sensitive about toms? I headed back to the island where the Gatherings were held and spotted Wavekit and Mosskit still playing. “Shade!” They yowled in delight as I trotted over, “Is Storm back yet?” I shook my head and they seemed to deflate a bit, “Why don’t we play moss ball for a bit?” I asked, “I’ll tell you the story of the battle.” They squealed in excitement and gathered around. I tossed the moss ball in the air while telling them about the fearsome battle between the Clans and the rogues. “Excuse me?” I heard a soft voice from my left. I whirled around, and saw a RiverClan she-cat standing behind me, “Yes?” I mewed politely, “What is it that you need?” “Nothing, just wanted to inform you that Mistystar suggests having Minnowfur’s kits in a real Nursery, instead of out in a war zone area.” She caught my worried look and added, “Or at least they shouldn’t be with cats who are leading wars and such.” Wavekit whimpered as he backed up into my flank, “But Shade is fun! And when Storm comes back, she’ll play Leader with us!” Mosskit nodded, “You can’t make us leave! We don’t want to.” She protested. “I think its fine for them to be here,” I sighed. “Of course we won’t take them into the battles or anything, we’ll leave them in your care when we depart.” The RiverClan cat nodded and turned away, “In four moons time, they’ll be apprentices, and they won’t be around with you.” Sadness engulfed me for a moment at the thought of the two little kittens heading for RiverClan’s camp, and the days when they would play together would be gone, “I know, but they should at least be with the cats that knew their mother and father well.” Nobody mentioned that RiverClan probably knew Reedtail and Minnowfur better than any other cat. “Great!” Mosskit laughed, “Tell us more, Shade!” ~ As night fell and I headed towards the urgent meeting with the Clan leaders, I started to realize that maybe I wasn’t as good as I seemed. “Ah, Shade, you’ve finally decided to join us.” Frosty smirked. I nearly tripped when I saw the two rogue leaders seated on the side. Kitkat was grooming her pelt (like always), and she barely looked up as I padded over to take a seat next to them. Frosty had a smug look on her face, and I stuck out my tongue at her, “I thought I said to meet with us the day after the half moon.” “Well your Clan leaders begged to differ.” Bramblestar shot me an apologetic glance and I just sighed. “So, are we agreeing to their plan or...” Mistystar shook her head, “I vote no. The rogues could easily be tricking us and-” “We happen to be sitting right here,” Frosty interrupted, not sounding polite at all, “If you wanted to invite us here, at least make it so we don’t hear all your criticizing remarks.” She nudged Kitkat when the brown and white she-cat continued to groom her fur. Kitkat looked up and muttered, “Yeah, what Frosty said.” The white she-cat sighed and rolled her eyes. I gave them both frosty glares and turned as Onestar coughed. “Let’s go back to the more urgent and pressing matter. They,” Onestar waved his tail at Frosty and Kitkat, “tell us that other rogues are taking our cats, and they’ve taken some of their cats too.” Frosty nodded, “We’ve lost about ten cats already, and I don’t plan on losing more. We figured that you guys wanted some kind of revenge, so we called a meeting with Storm’s group.” “Who we found missing,” Kitkat mewed, “Which I found disappointing.” Blackstar spoke up, “I think we should work with them. If they’re the only way to get back the missing ShadowClan cats, I’ll work with them.” Bramblestar nodded, “Blackstar’s right, we need all the support we can get if we’re to get our missing cats back.” All the eyes turned to Onestar, and he cleared his throat, “I’m with Mistystar, there’s no way we can forget how they ruthlessly murdered Reedtail and Minnowfur.” “Not to mention Stonekit.” I couldn’t help but put in. “You’re so mean to Tessa,” Kitkat mewed breezily, “She was only following orders.” Her fluffy white tail rested on the floor next to her. “Only because you let him escape.” Frosty muttered. “''You'' told me to kill the kit anyways. Tessa was the one who you wanted to kill Minnowfur.” It was depressing, watching the two she-cats argue about murdering the Clan cats. Mistystar glared disapprovingly at them, “I think this proves my point.” Onestar nodded vigorously. Frosty muttered something incoherent, but I caught a few phrases. “Incompetent cats... rude Clan...” Bramblestar turned to me, “Shade, you’re the last vote. Are you going to agree with working with the rogues, or are you going to turn down their offer?” Frosty’s beady blue eyes stared at me, and Kitkat had this hopeful and cheerful look. I couldn’t help but wonder how Kitkat became an assassin like Frosty. “I need to talk with my group first.” Then I flinched when I said “my group”. They weren’t my group, they were Storm’s friends. “Go ahead.” Blackstar nodded his approval and the other three leaders did the same. I hurriedly padded out and found Brownhare sleeping. I jabbed him awake and hissed, “Go find the others immediately and bring them here. We have important things to discuss.” He nodded and trotted away while I sat down with my tail curled tightly around my paws. What if I’m not suited for this position? Sure, I’ve been the leader of my family for awhile, but after my “death”, I couldn’t help but notice how strong Storm was. I’m nothing like her. Dawnfur was the first to come stalking back, and she was eyeing me like I was her next meal. I ignored her as I waited for the others to come. Just as Snowbreeze, the last cat, stepped in, Dawnfur growled, “What do you want?” I sighed at her hostility and mewed, “We need to vote on something. We need to decide as a group whether or not we’re going to trust Frosty and Kitkat and join their forces to defeat the other group of rogues that have been kidnapping our cats.” Dawnfur immediately mewed, “Let’s do it.” Snowbreeze nodded, “They’ve even got Storm, we have to do it.” Tessa merely dipped her head to Snowbreeze’s remark, and I remembered what I heard that day beside the stream. Brownhare narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything, “I think it’s a good idea.” He muttered, though the vote had already been decided. “That was fast.” I mewed, spinning around to go back to the meeting. I felt a pang in my chest at the thought of Storm’s group shrinking into this. There were only four of them now, not including Storm or myself. “Hey Shade,” Dawnfur called out from behind me. “Yes?” “Stop looking so glum about yourself.” I whirled around in surprised and stared at the ShadowClan she-cat. “What do you mean?” I mewed, slightly offended by her statement. She smirked, “You may think that you’re useless compared to Storm, but who’s the one who got us together anyways?” I knew what she was trying to tell me. The others were nodding too. “Thanks, Dawnfur.” She only shrugged. “It’s a matter of opinion, but you’re our leader for now. Go for it.” The End. Category:Cchen3's Fanfics Category:Cold